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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22451995">Bittersweet</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/SekseeDragoness/pseuds/PhoenixDown'>PhoenixDown (SekseeDragoness)</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Sefikura Week 2020 [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst with a Happy Ending, Awkward Conversations, Bittersweet, BoBoChicobo, Bromance, Cloud is a ball of angst sometimes, Cute Widdle Chicobo, Day 4, Don't copy to another site, Gen, M/M, Pre-Relationship, Sefikura Week 2020, Socially Awkward Cloud Strife, Socially Awkward Sephiroth, Zack Fair &amp; Cloud Strife Friendship</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-01-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-01-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-04-28 15:15:16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>5,804</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22451995</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/SekseeDragoness/pseuds/PhoenixDown</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Sefikura Week 2020 Day 4: Bittersweet</p>
<p>Hoo boy. So, this beast grew a second head when it came time to type it out! Hence the late posting.</p>
<p>This is over 5000 words and only about half of that is the kind of immediate lead up to the situation in Bird.</p>
<p>In other words, even though this is a Sefikura fic... it kinda turned out more of a Bromance fic for the first half, but it was the only way that I could explain how Cloud came to end up in the situation he was in and how he has turned out in my other fics for this series.<br/>I hope you guys like it. It's long-winded, but they get there in the end, Cloud just has to deal with some stuff and Zack needs to be there to force him into keeping his dreams alive.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Sephiroth/Cloud Strife</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Sefikura Week 2020 [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1612078</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>9</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>40</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Sefikura (Sephiroth/Cloud) Week - Yearly Event</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Bittersweet</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>When Cloud left Nibelhiem to follow his dreams, his head was full of grandiose adventures, feats of great strength and acts of heroism.<br/>
He would join the army and be so outstanding that Sephiroth himself would take notice and demand he joins SOLDIER immediately.<br/>
Then he would obviously be so exceptionally talented that he would fly through the SOLDIER program and make it to 1st Class within the first year of joining, then he and his hero would go off on deadly missions together, saving each other from dangers at every turn.<br/>
To say his dreams had been horrendously delusional would be a kindness.</p>
<p>What had actually happened was, the day after his fifteenth birthday, he had set off on what turned out to be almost a full month of traveling in a blur of motion sickness and had barely made it to Midgar in time for recruitment.<br/>
He was then shuffled off to join the rest of the newly signed army fodder, to be put through various forms of torture that had blandly been labeled as things like 'Bootcamp 101', Formations 101', History 101' or 'Basic Training 101'.<br/>
Mealtimes turned out to be yet another type of torture as the starving, over-worked teens all shoveled scoops of liquid or solid forms of cardboard into their mouths, before rushing off to their next 'Torture 101' classes or raced to get a spot in the showers before collapsing into bed.</p>
<p>Cloud had learned very quickly that the cadets were lucky to even get a glimpse of a SOLDIER uniform off in the distance, let alone getting noticed by the most famous of the bunch.<br/>
On very rare occasions, a few cadets may get to go on a mission involving a Third Class, but those were few and far between and tended to be assigned to the more 'promising' cadets. In other words, NOT Cloud.</p>
<p>He had also quickly come to realize that, not only was he smaller than about 95% of the other recruits, both in height and body mass, but he was also the most 'foreign' of the lot. His accent, pale skin, blond hair and bright blue eyes making him stick out like a sore thumb and making him an obvious target for bullying.<br/>
It wasn't hard to figure out that his life as a cadet was just going to be a repeat of his childhood as the punching bag in Nibelhiem and so he fell back into his usual habits and defense mechanisms by isolating himself as much as possible, staying quiet and fighting back like a cornered Nibel Wolf whenever he was bullied.</p>
<p>It was twenty months of the same thing, over and over, before one rare day, his squad leader shouted into the bunker that he was to report to their commander, who had simply handed over mission orders and told him' Good luck'.<br/>
Apparently, his life growing up high in the mountains had him placed as the ideal cadet to accompany a Third class on a mission.<br/>
It was a simple thing, one other cadet had been sent along and if he was completely honest, his life in the mountains had been precisely no help on the mission.<br/>
Something about Cloud had clearly caught the bouncy SOLDIERs attention as he spent nearly the entire mission chatting with him about their hometowns and life in the army.</p>
<p>Cloud had expected that to be the end of things once the mission was over, but apparently Zack Fair had decided he liked the blond and had taken him under his wing.<br/>
He started regularly showing up in his downtime to hang out and give training pointers to Cloud (and any cadet nearby, coz that's just how Zack was). He had even looked at his file to find out 'his little buddy's' birthday and had shown up with a cupcake with a match sticking out of it instead of a candle because that's all he could find on short notice.<br/>
Cloud took it as a sign that his life was looking up and, with Zack's encouragement, he gave it his best at the SOLDIER trials.</p>
<p>But it wasn't enough. He failed.</p>
<p>Not willing to even consider returning home as a failure, he chose to join the regular army.<br/>
Zack also had no intention of letting Cloud give up on his dreams and every chance he got, he dragged Cloud down to the gyms or training ground to help him prepare for the next year's trials.<br/>
It was hard work and sometimes he even considered if it was worth it all, but towards the end of the year, he could really see the difference in photos that Zack had taken of him the year before. He had even grown a bit which was nice.<br/>
So, with more confidence than he could ever remember feeling, he again gave the SOLDIER trials his best shot.</p>
<p>This time, the failure had felt so much worse.<br/>
Not only had he failed himself, but he had failed his friend and wasted his time over the last year when he knew the made had very little of it spare, to begin with.<br/>
Cloud couldn't bear to face him and was extremely glad that the man had been away on a mission. He had simply sent him a quick text telling him the results with an apology for wasting his time and letting him know that he didn't want to talk about it.</p>
<p>He had resigned himself to just being a regular trooper and went on with his normal routine, though feeling a little more empty inside now.</p>
<p>Zack, however, had not and would not give up on the blond achieving his dreams and did the only thing he could think to do.<br/>
He went to his mentor for advice and hopefully some insight on the situation.<br/>
He just knew in his heart that Cloud was meant to be in SOLDIER.</p>
<p>A week after his second failure, Cloud was bodily dragged from his bunk and despite all protests and confused questions, was hauled up to the SOLDIER floors by his always cheery, energetic friend and introduced to the man's mentor.<br/>
The whirlwind known as Zack Fair then left the room with a quick "I'll see you after your chat, Spikey!"</p>
<p>Cloud was both stunned and confused as he stared at one of the living legends he had idolized for years.<br/>
The man smiled softly at him as he apologized for Zack's lack of manners and asked him to take a seat. Then he explained that he had been asked to look into why his student's friend had failed the SOLDIER trials.<br/>
Cloud had gone bright red as he stuttered out an apology but had quickly been assured by the older man him that it had not been any hassle to do and he had let the blond know that it was well within his rights to find out the results. How else were they expected to improve themselves to try again later, if they didn't know what part of the testing they had failed?</p>
<p>According to the results, Cloud had done extremely well on the written, physical and endurance sections of the trial and his scored on the strategy portion had even impressed Angeal.<br/>
In the year since his first Trial, he had obviously had a growth spurt which put his numbers well within the height and weight range they required to be able to even do the mako tolerance testing if a participant passed. (One of the areas where he had failed the year before).<br/>
The only areas where he had failed this year had been in the Social and psychological sections.<br/>
He was too quiet and unwilling to speak up in situations where he clearly didn't agree with the general consensus.<br/>
He didn't interact with his fellow troopers, choosing instead to isolate himself where possible, though his ability to interact with Zack had been noted as a good sign that he could learn to socialize more.<br/>
He was too combative when physically confronted by people, leading to frenzied attacks on some of his fellow cadets and troopers in previous years and though it was noted that he never chose to start any fights he had been in, it did show strong indications of previous psychological trauma that had not been properly dealt with.</p>
<p>Cloud sat stunned as he listened to the evaluation. He felt like his dreams had just been officially shut down. He would need to change his entire personality to have a hope of passing the trials.</p>
<p>Angeal sighed at the dejected look on the boy's face. He felt like he had just handed him a death sentence if the look on the blond's face was anything to go by.<br/>
"This isn't the end Cloud. At least it doesn't have to be. If being quiet and socially awkward was an impassable barrier to becoming a SOLDIER, Sephiroth would be in the regular army right now" He said with a deep chuckle.<br/>
Cloud looked up at the bulky first like he had gone mad, which only made the man laugh harder "It's true. He is the most socially inept person I have ever had the pleasure to meet. If it wasn't for Genesis and I socializing him as a cadet, I doubt he would have ever become the General of SOLDIER. Being unable to hold even a basic conversation with his men would have been quite the barrier and that was how he was when we first met him. Getting more than a two-word answer out of him was like pulling teeth. He would blurt out the solution to a problem that had been discussed five minutes earlier, but he'd say it while we were already in the middle of a completely different conversation. There was no embarrassment on his part, thankfully, because he just didn't know that he was doing something socially inappropriate. I assume you can at least hold a conversation or give more than two-word answers and don't interrupt people's conversations to answer a question from five minutes ago?"<br/>
Cloud shook his head as he giggled at the thought of his hero doing the things mentioned. It was humbling to know that he was being told things most people would never dream of the man doing. It was something he would tell no-one about.<br/>
"Then I think there is more than just a little hope for you" Angeal smiled at him.<br/>
"What about the psychological part of things and what am I meant to do if someone tries to attack me. I can't just stand there and take a beating" Cloud fretted.<br/>
Angeal hummed in thought "Well, the psychological side of things is a surprisingly easy fix. We schedule regular appointments for you to see one of the army psychologists. It's what they are there for, Cloud. I'm sure you already have some idea what issues you may have, but even if you aren't sure, just talking to someone who isn't going to judge you can be extremely freeing. You can talk to them about anything from how you suspect the cafeteria food is actually soylent green, to your hopes and dreams for the future. As long as you can be seen to be trying to fix yourself, and unless you are secretly hiding some sort of demonic, homicidal personality that I don't know about, the psyche side of things won't be a problem... The combative nature may be something Zack and I can help you with.  There's a big difference between self-defense and losing control, right now you lose control and use excessive force in return for any perceived threat from what your file says. Whether that is fueled by fear or anger is something you will need to discuss with your psychologist and they will be able to give you the best tools to learn how to deal with that. In the meantime, I can get Zack to concentrate on teaching you defensive moves. Ones that cause pain but not damage and show anyone who tries to attack you, that you can hurt them, but you are choosing not to. It's far more humbling and frustrating for an attacker to be easily dislodged without injury than it is to be beaten. Being beaten just gives them bruises and scars to brag to their, likely just as stupid, friends about." Angeal watched as Cloud thought over everything he had just said "How does that sound?"<br/>
Cloud smiled up at the man "I-I think that sounds good. But I don't want to burden you or Zack-" He was waved to silence by the man.<br/>
"As I said, Cloud, it's no bother. I like to help and I think Zack is right. I think you would be a great addition to SOLDIER. I'm more than happy to help that come to pass" Cloud could do nothing other than nod in thanks, afraid he would burst into tears if he tried to speak.<br/>
Cloud left the office in a daze, but with renewed hope and a newfound determination. Not only did Zack believe in him, but so did Angeal Hewley! </p>
<p>Over the next few months, they started in on a new training regimen in their spare time. Angeal obviously couldn't attend them, he was far too busy, but the fact that he knew Angeal was giving Zack pointers on what to teach him was a real confidence boost.<br/>
The older First had also scheduled appointments with the psychologist for him and handed the schedule to Zack to pass on.<br/>
Despite his nervousness about talking to a complete stranger, his first appointment had gone surprisingly well. They had just chatted about general things that he was doing and about where he had grown up, how he'd come to be in the army. Never diving too deep, just skimming the surface. It left Cloud feeling reassured that they could take it slow, go at his pace and approach his issues one small step at a time.</p>
<p>The biggest obstacle for Cloud had and always would be socialization. His fear of making a fool of himself was tremendous. But if it was the only way he was going to get into SOLDIER, then he would just have to suck it up.</p>
<p>He started off his mission to sociability small. His first step was to make himself actually speak up in class.<br/>
He had gotten a few shocked looks and even the teachers had made comments to the effect of "OMG HE SPEAKS!"<br/>
Cloud did his best not to get offended and simply smiled in response.</p>
<p>After a few weeks of doing this, he felt like he needed to take a bigger step, so he decided that he was going to try to start joining in on group activities inside and outside of classes. First, it was small things like asking to sit at a lunch table with people from his class, or asking people if he could join their group in class instead of having to be assigned to a group like he usually was.<br/>
Then, one afternoon his squad went for a training session when Zack was out on a mission, So Cloud took a deep breath and invited himself along. They were surprised, but pleasantly so. After inviting himself along, they must have felt like it was alright to ask him questions about himself. It made the socialization much easier when he wasn't the one having to start up the conversations and it turned out they had all been curious about him, but he had always been so standoffish since joining the regular army with them, that they thought he was just one of those people who thought themselves too good for the regular army after despite failing the SOLDIER trials and were just waiting for their contract to end so that they could 'move on to better things'.<br/>
Cloud shook his head with a little laugh "Honestly, if it wasn't for my friend pushing me to keep trying, I was actually okay with life in the regular army after failing the second time"<br/>
Some of them winced at the mention of failing twice and some nodded in sympathy. One of the chattier men in their squad, Calvin, piped up "I dunno how you even tried a second time. After failing the first time I was so depressed I just couldn't bear the thought of going through it all again. I'd rather just be a regular army Joe and not have my ego bubble burst again"<br/>
A few the men shook their heads or rolled their eyes at him, but they were all laughing.<br/>
Cloud nodded "Yeah, I can understand that and as I said if it wasn't for Zack I would NOT be thinking of trying a third time" There were a few shocked gasps.<br/>
"Why the hell would you try again?" He thinks that was a dark-skinned trooper named Frank.<br/>
"It's still my dream to get into SOLDIER" He shrugged like it was obvious "But I also know why I failed and what I need to improve to get into SOLDIER now" He looked up as everyone went silent.<br/>
A tall lean trooper named Wayne spoke up "Must be nice havin' a SOLDIER friend to tell you that" Even though the words were harsh, he didn't sound bitter, nor did the few hummed agreements.<br/>
"You can actually find out your full trial results too you know? If you go to one of the commanders and ask for them, they'll print them out for you." Cloud looked around at his squad as surprise and a little hope entered some of their eyes.<br/>
"For real?" Calvin asked.<br/>
Cloud nodded "Yeah, they don't outright tell you, I think they either want you to be determined enough to ask, or maybe they just assume we all know, but they have the detailed results available so that you CAN find out where you need to improve. They want you to try again, that's why they tell you that there is no limit on how many times you can try" Cloud shrugged.<br/>
One of the older troopers in their group, Dave, chuckled "I guess I know where everyone else is going tomorrow"<br/>
Most of them laughed at that, but Cloud was curious "You don't want to find out your trail results?"<br/>
Dave shook his head "Can't try again. I passed the last trial, but I just don't have the mako tolerance. I ended up in the infirmary for about a month before I joined regular. Even now, what, 14 months later, in the right light my eyes still have a slight mako ring. My body guzzled the mako like a greedy kid in a cake shop and didn't want to let it go."<br/>
"Sorry" Cloud felt bad for bringing it up.<br/>
"Hey, don't be sorry, I may not be able to become a SOLDIER, but even the small tester dose left its mark. Not only do I have pretty eyes that glow in the right light, but I can also lift about double what I could before the trials" He waggled his eyebrows at the blond "Mind you, they say some of that strength will taper off, just like the mako glow has, but some of the added strength will always stay"<br/>
"That's cool. At least you got something out of being a failure" Taran was a beast of a man with a build similar to Angeal's and he had huge grin to rival Zack's. Dave swung his elbow back into the taller man's gut and laughed as he curled in on himself. The two were always seen together.<br/>
After an hour spent training and gossiping like a bunch of old ladies, Cloud actually felt like a part of the group.</p>
<p>The next day was a free day and Cloud had planned to spend it having a little time to himself. Even though he had enjoyed getting to know his squad and he was finding himself more able to speak up without stuttering, he was still a loner at heart and he liked the quiet, something which his squad was not.<br/>
Instead, as he left his barracks, he was accosted by Zack "Hey buddy, I was just coming to grab you. I've gotta head over to the stables and thought you might wanna come with me and visit some of your long lost relatives!"<br/>
Cloud just stared at him in confusion for a second, before it clicked "How many times do I have to tell you, I. AM. NOT. A. CHOCOBO!!!"<br/>
Zack had already taken off running and he was hot on his heels. He wasn't really angry with the man, it had been an ongoing joke between them, but sometimes Zack needed a good kick to remind him to reign in the stupid a little.<br/>
He chased him all the way around the training grounds before the man ducked through a hole in the fence under one of the bleachers and bolted out from behind them to go across the grounds. Cloud followed him through and came out just as his friend attempted to jump onto some poor soul's back, screaming at them to save him from the rabid Chocobo-head. Cloud didn't pay any attention to the other person, except to notice that they must be a SOLDIER as they had dodged the raven-haired lunatic and were now holding him at arm's length, giving Cloud the perfect opportunity.<br/>
He ran straight up to the man and with a low growl, kicked him as hard as he could in the shin. His friend hopped around on one foot for a moment as Cloud finally took the time to notice who it was that was holding the man and he promptly stiffened into a salute "G-General Sephiroth, Sir, I assure you he deserved that kick. I'm very sorry-" He stopped babbling as his dark-haired friend burst out laughing. This was all his fault. The first time he meets his idol and he's too busy dealing with that idiot and makes a fool of himself. If looks could kill, Zack would be cremated and scattered to the winds at that very moment.<br/>
"It's quite alright. Even if I wasn't absolutely certain that he deserved it, I would have let it slide today, simply by virtue of your good timing." Cloud looked up to see the man smirking at him and he tried his best not to flush with embarrassment.<br/>
The man completely ignored the man hanging from his grip, complaining about the unfairness and spoke over him "Afterall, the reason I am here is due to a certain PUP not meeting his obligations right now" The General looked down at Zack meaningfully until the younger SOLDIER winced, clearly remembering what he was meant to be doing, instead of provoking his young friend into a wild chase across the army grounds.<br/>
Sephiroth let the man slip out of his grip, as he ran away "Shoot! I forgot. I gotta go! Sorry, Spike. I'll catch up with you tomorrow if Ange doesn't torture me too much" He shouted over his shoulder.<br/>
Cloud just rolled his eyes and smiled. He hadn't even realized the General had followed his friend until he was watching his back as it headed away from him. He sighed in disappointment, but then shrugged and decided to return to plan A for his day off. Finding a nice quiet spot to read.</p>
<p>The next day, as he had said, Zack once again accosted Cloud with the intention of visiting the stables. Cloud humored him, as even if it would involve jokes about his hair, at least he could throw Black Chocobo jokes back at the man.<br/>
They spent an hour looking in on the warbirds, all while Zack told Cloud all about each one. Zack's own bird was named Pearl and there was nothing in the world that could stop Cloud from comparing Zack to his own Black Chocobo when it started to preen the taller man's hair.<br/>
Of course, it had to be just at that moment when he was laughing so hard that tears were pouring down his cheeks, that Angeal's Blue, named Zazu, decided to start preening Cloud's hair.<br/>
By the time they got out of the main stable, both of them were groaning in pain from laughing so hard and their hair was looking like they had stuck their fingers in electric sockets.<br/>
They were about to head off to get a bite to eat somewhere above plate when a tiny little kweh caught their attention.<br/>
Cloud couldn't help but head straight towards the sound. He had always been weak to cute things and it sounded like there were Chocobo chicks nearby. Zack was hot on the blond's heels.</p>
<p>As they followed the sounds, they came to one of the smaller stables and headed inside.<br/>
There was a man sitting in one of the first stalls attempting to feed a small yellow ball of fluffy down. Cloud couldn't help the small sound that escaped him at the sight.<br/>
The man looked up and smiled. He looked tired and a little frustrated as the little bird refused to stay still and eat, instead, it was running around as though looking for something. He let out a sigh and stood up "Hey fellas, how can I help ya?"<br/>
Cloud was too busy watching the floof ball run around its enclosure, calling out every few seconds. It just sounded so sad.<br/>
"We just heard the chick and wanted to come to see. What's up with the little guy, they don't usually act like that?"<br/>
The man scratched the side of his head as he watched the little bird running around "Well, this here little fella, unfortunately, lost his ma a few days back. Monster attacked the nest just outside Healin and one 'a the SOLDIER bought the chick back. Said he couldn't just leave the poor little guy on his lonesome" He sighed as he turned back to the two men "Unfortunately, the poor thing is just too distraught. Keeps lookin' fer his ma. Won't eat much before he's off to search again"<br/>
Zack hummed sadly. It was, unfortunately, something they all had to get used to as SOLDIER. Seeing animals attacked by monsters and deciding whether or not to save them.<br/>
Cloud whimpered sadly as he got down on his knees to watch the little bird "Aww, poor widdle baby. You miss your mama huh?"<br/>
As the little bird was doing his rounds of the stall to look for his ma, he came to a stop in front of Cloud and stared at him. It tilted it's head one way, then the other, before it let out a loud 'WARK!' and attempted to jump through the gaps in the wood.<br/>
Cloud wasn't sure what was going on, but the stall hand had let out a shocked "Well, I'll be..." before bending over to pick the chick up. He opened the gate while trying to make sure the wriggling chick didn't fall and then stepped out and handed the chick over to the stunned trooper.<br/>
He sat there dumbfounded as the chick gave out a couple of cute little peeping noises, before turning in a circle on his lap and settling down.<br/>
The stable hand came back out from the stable as Cloud looked up again "Try feeding him some of this?" He said as he handed cloud a little bowl filled with mushy greens and a spoon.<br/>
Cloud did as he was told, smiling as the chicobo happily gobbled down the green porridge. It ate almost the entire bowl of much before it stopped opening its mouth for more. Instead, it fluffed it's feathers and snuggled down, closing its eyes to have a sleep.<br/>
Cloud had heard Zack taking photos the whole time he had been feeding the chick, but he was to busy melting over the cuteness to care. As he looked up at his friend, instead of finding him barely holding in his laughter, as he had expected, he was smiling down at him proudly. Cloud smiled back until he heard the other man hum in amusement "Just. Don't. Zachary!" The man's response was a snort of amusement.</p>
<p>They left the stables after Cloud got the little floof settled in its nest, with a promise to come back in the morning. Apparently there was a fostering program within the company that troopers could volunteer for, so Cloud had volunteered, filling out the required paperwork and giving it to Zack, who said he was going to take it to Angeal to get it fast-tracked for the little bird's sake.<br/>
The stablehand didn't think the chick would survive the week if it didn't get the care and feeding it needed and unfortunately, none of the current foster volunteers or stablehands had been able to get the chick to settle long enough to feed it.<br/>
Cloud was a heaven send to them as they all wanted the little guy to survive.<br/>
It didn't have a name yet, that was one of the tasks of the person who raised it, so Cloud would have to come up with something good for the little guy.</p>
<p>His next week was spent getting up earlier than everyone else so that he could run down to the stables and spend some time feeding and 'grooming' (petting and snuggling) the little yellow ball of cuteness. Then he would dash off to his morning classes.<br/>
He was still determined to continue his socialization mission by getting to know the other groups of people in his classes. After all, it wasn't only your own squad that you had to work well with.<br/>
after his morning classes, he would run back over to the stables to give the bird another feed and snuggle before heading off to his afternoon classes. It was heartbreaking to hear the poor bird calling out for him as he left, but hopefully, once the paperwork was approved, he would be able to keep the chick with him at all times.<br/>
It was the end of the week by the time the paperwork cleared and Cloud had never been so relieved to get a piece of paper in his life. He had taken it straight to the stables and handed it over, much to the combined relief of the other stablehands who were taking turns watching the poor bird overnight.<br/>
He was given a heap of supplies, food and a booklet on how to care for the chick (which he already knew after a week of feeding the bird and asking the stablehands every question imaginable. They had been happy that he was interested in learning everything, not just the fun bits), then sent on his way with a "Good, luck kiddo, bring him back to visit"</p>
<p>Zack had come with him to get the bird and chose to help him by carrying all of the supplies. Cloud was glad as he wasn't sure he would have been able to carry those and the chick as well.<br/>
So as not to distub the rest of his bunkmates, the fostering program came with the unexpected added bonus of a room to himself, as well as a small boost to his paycheck. It was nothing grand, but it was not something he had expected from ShinRa. It was actually a decent thing to do.<br/>
He had been packing away all of the food and supplies with the little bird running around his feet the entire time when Zack scooped the little one up and dumped it on top of Cloud's head.<br/>
Cloud sighed and turned around to glare at his friend, just in time to get his picture taken.<br/>
He groaned as he went back to sorting his new room out. It would be his new home for the next few months until the bird was big enough to join the rest of the Chocobo's in the stalls.<br/>
In spite of Cloud fluffing about, trying to organize where to put everything, the bird seemed quite content on top of his head, shifting with him as he walked around and changing his position to stay in place when he bent over.</p>
<p>When he finally settled down and took a seat on his bed, the chicobo took a few minuted to pull at some of Clouds spikes, in a cute imitation of grooming, before snuggling down and falling asleep.<br/>
He heard the fake shutter sound from Zack's phone. He didn't even want to think about how many photos the man had taken, or the fact that he was likely sending most of them to his Mentor.</p>
<p>Two days later he was sitting under a tree in a small courtyard he had discovered, behind one of the many office buildings reading a book, when a deep voice spoke from in front of him.<br/>
"Excuse me, but, I'm just curious, why is there a Chicobo in your hair?"<br/>
Cloud looked up, shocked to see that it was General Sephiroth in front of him. He never imagined the man's voice could sound so confused and unsure. Perhaps even a little unsteady.<br/>
But then he remembered Angeal's words. He was socially inept. He wasn't the kind of man to start random conversations and if he didn't know something, he was certainly more likely to go to a friend and ask them about it, rather than approaching a virtual stranger.<br/>
Although, Cloud was trying to improve himself, who's to say Sephiroth wasn't doing the same? What better way than by approaching someone who you sort of met once, it wasn't completely new territory, and he knew the blond was a friend of his friend, so there was a good chance he wouldn't be hostile. Plus, status-wise, Cloud was a mere trooper. Who would believe him if he said the General of SOLDIER had started an awkward conversation with him.<br/>
Cloud nodded to himself. It made sense and Cloud was happy to help a fellow awkward conversationalist out "Would you like the short answer, or the long answer, Sir?" He smiled up at the man.<br/>
Sephiroth's lips quirked up a little "Hn. Maybe start with the short answer and see how intrigued it makes me?"<br/>
The blond grinned "Short answer is; Zack Fair, Sir"<br/>
The General's eyes narrowed slightly "Consider me intrigued. May I?" He asked as he indicated the spot beside Cloud. At Cloud's nod, he sat down "And please, call me Sephiroth"<br/>
Cloud paused for a moment in surprise before smiling at the older man OK, Sephiroth. I'm Cloud, it's nice to meet you" Cloud held out a hand and the other man shook it gently.<br/>
"Ok, so. The long story isn't really that long, but about a week ago, that first day when you saw me kick Zackary, was sort of when it started..."</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>So... yes... Cloud is 18 on his way towards 19 when they meet.<br/>Also, sorry for the crappy editing on these fics. I have brief outlines of what I want to do with the prompts, but I'm actually typing and posting them the same day they go up.<br/>Eesh, some of those paragraphs are horrendous, but it's nearly 1 am on the 29th here, I'm already late posting it, so... BOOYAH! ENJOY!!!</p>
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<p>SMUT TOMORROW!!!!</p>
<p>^_^♥</p>
<p>P.S. Yes Angeal named his Blue War Bird, Zazu, after the bird in the Lion King because he's a sassy little bitch and tries to boss all of the other Chocobo around, but they never listen to him. XD</p></blockquote></div></div>
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